Nerdapalooza: The Protomen!
Lets talk about a band so rad that they played TWO nights at Nerdapalooza. Act I in the first night and Act II on the 2nd. A band with such a cult following that people were actually crying after their first performance because they had never seen them before and the people who were rocking out of their clothes on the 2nd night. I had a chance to hang with these guys all throughout the festival and get to know them a bit, this music is all real. I mean in the sense of the passion that was put in to it and the passion that comes out when it’s played. If you haven’t yet, be sure to give them a listen.
How did you get involved with Nerdapalooza?: We did a show on Halloween with the band called the Killer Robots, which is a local band from Orlando, who were just nuts. They had us come play this show with them and it was in 2007 while we were touring the Southeast. This was where we met one of the organizers, Josh Thew. When we were doing a release show in Nashville later that year, he showed up there and asked us to do Nerdapalooza. We weren’t sure because we didn’t know what it was and we had a lot going on at the time. So Josh broke it down and said “Look, you’re my favorite band and you’d fit in well, and MC Chris is playing. So I said ‘Ok, if you put us on before MC Chris, we’ll come down and play.’ Of course we ended up breaking down on the way, but thats another story.
Who are you excited to see this year?: We want to see the ‘Dan Bands’ which he has three. We can’t wait to see MegaRan, I like being surprised by bands that I don’t know and hearing things I haven’t heard. We also loved that band from before, Shinobi Ninja.
How does it feel getting this awesome reaction from the Nerd community?: It’s interesting, we had no idea, we were doing what we do for the shits and giggles of it. We’re all guys and gals from a scene where we listen to everything from indie rock to indie hardcore and we just said ‘lets play in a band and tour and everything.’ When we started, we didn’t even know this whole ‘Nerd’ music scene existed and we didn’t even consider ourselves a part of it. But when we first started performing and what not, a whole world of wrath came down on us because we were different then everyone else. Everyone hated the crap out of us at first.
What do you guys geek out about?: In general, we play a good bit of video games, movies, music, etc. A lot of our music obviously is inspired my movie soundtracks. We understand now that we’re making concept records and we kinda write a story then say ‘Ok, this part of the story needs this kind of feel’ and what not, and a lot of it is character based. We know we’ve done a good job when a fan says to us ‘I listened to your album and I can see it, I can see the whole story.’ That means we did it how we planned,
Do you have any plans for taking your work totally visual?: (Laughs) There are always plans for something like that. We have a lot of things in the works but it’s just a matter of having the means to do it right. It would have to be done the way that we want it. It would ruin a lot of peoples lives in the process.
What is the coolest Nerd tattoo that you’ve seen since you’d been down here?: I saw the Act II cover tattooed on someones leg and it was fucking amazing. Another that was almost as good was a guy who had a prosthetic leg with our art on it. That was in Savannah, GA when we were playing a show and I look out into the crowd and there was a guy just waving his leg up in the air, just pumping it in the air and it had our logo painted all over it. We definitely all signed that after the show.
What’s next for The Protomen?: I’d say the next step for us is just pure fame and glory and jumpsuits… gold flowing jumpsuits. Oh, and we’re working on a Covers album.
